The present disclosure relates generally to sheet material lifts. In particular, sheet material lifts for use with construction sheet materials are described herein.
Typically, a sheet of drywall to be installed upon the support beams of a wall or ceiling is made of crushed gypsum sandwiched between layers of felt paper. The sheet is usually about 4 feet by 8 feet in size and may weigh between 75 and 100 pounds, depending on its constituent materials. Such a sheet is unwieldy and may be extremely difficult for one person to handle during installation.
Known sheet material lifts, which are sometimes referred to as drywall jacks for drywall specific applications, are not entirely satisfactory for the range of applications in which they are employed. For example, existing sheet material lifts include a number of articulating components, are complex to use and operate, and are in general quite cumbersome. Some sheet material jacks avoid some of the complexity of other known sheet material lifts, but are difficult and/or unstable in use.
Further, typical sheet material lifts require that the user attend to the jack at all times to maintain the sheet material in a desired position. This requirement occupies the user's hands and prevents the user from stepping away from the jack. When a user must maintain the sheet material in a desired position, he may require a second person to fasten the piece of sheet material to the wall, which increases the labor expense of a job. Lacking a second person, the user of conventional sheet material lifts risks injury and/or inaccurate placement of the sheet material when attempting to fasten sheet material by himself.
Thus, there exists a need for sheet material lifts that improve upon and advance the design of known sheet material lifts. Examples of new and useful sheet material lifts relevant to the needs existing in the field are discussed in the sections below.
Disclosure addressing one or more of the identified existing needs is provided in the detailed description below. References relevant to sheet material lifts include U.S. patent References: U.S. Pat. No. 5,460,469, U.S. Pat. No. 5,988,659, U.S. Pat. No. 6,511,275, U.S. Pat. No. 7,101,136, and U.S. Pat. No. 7,387,293. The complete disclosures of the above patent references are herein incorporated by reference for all purposes.